Red/White Scrimmage gives fans first look at team

EVANSTON – With just a week to go before the Evanston Red Devils high school football team opens up its season at Kay Fackrell Stadium against Cheyenne South, the team took to the field to give fans their first look of the year in the annual Red-White scrimmage on Friday, Aug. 24.

The scrimmage got underway just before 5:30 p.m. and started with the younger Red Devils going head-to-head. After that, the varsity was split up evenly between two teams and went at it until about 7:30 p.m.

Quarterback/wide receiver Miles Piper caused the first cheers of the night in the varsity battle, as he caught a sailing pass in the back corner of the end zone and managed to maintain control and get a foot to touch down in bounds.

There were many runs throughout the scrimmage that were able to break past the initial line of defense and into the secondary.

However there were also a few plays where the running backs were stopped right on or behind the line of scrimmage or put the ball on the ground for the defense to snatch up.

On a couple of plays in particular, junior running back Will Kishpaugh displayed some powerful leg-drive ability late, shedding contact and stretching out runs for extra yards before being taken down.

The junior wide receiver and backup quarterback, Alek Johnson, displayed change of pace capabilities during his time at quarterback, occasionally using his foot speed to take off from the pocket and make things happen when a play broke down.

Ian Fisher triggered a few gasps from the crowd when he displayed an impressive vertical to go up and bring down a high pass up the middle of the field.

The final play of the scrimmage ended things on a high note as senior quarterback Kyler Wagstaff completed a 30-yard touchdown pass to the junior Johnson.

Upon the completion of this play, the coaches called the players into a huddle and gave them a send-off speech.

Coach Pat Fackrell told his players to start the school year off on the right foot by showing up to class early. “Let’s get started right, and let’s go 1-0,” he said.

After the scrimmage, Fackrell seemed to be generally pleased with what he saw on the field.

“I think Kyler (Wagstaff) managed our offense very well. Alek (Johnson) came in and did a very nice job as well. We’re throwing a pretty good ball right now, but up front, we’ve got to work on assignments and being smarter and getting guys to (pick up blocks on) inside linebackers,” Fackrell said. “Defensively, we’re staying pretty vanilla right now and that’s pretty typical for this time of year. It’s just about being able to progress and get better. I thought we did a pretty good job of that so that’s a positive.”

Fackrell did say the team has a ways to go before taking on Cheyenne South on Aug. 30 but said the scrimmage will go a long way toward accomplishing the goal.

“For us, it’s a great way to put it on film and know what we need to evaluate and what things to work on to move forward and emphasize those early in the week,” he said.

Evanston will play two of its first four games of the season at Kay Fackrell Stadium.